1. Field
This invention relates generally to rendering approximate webpage screenshots.
2. Background
Capturing screen shots is not new in the world of computing. There have been many techniques used to capture what is displayed on a user's local device, such as pressing the “Print Screen” button on the typical computer keyboard. Many of these techniques however are not sufficient when one desires to capture only a screenshot of a particular application page, such as a webpage the user is viewing (rather than the entire viewing area as may be displayed in a user's monitor). While currently there are techniques for capturing screen shots of web pages, these techniques often require that the user install an additional application, extension, or other code to capture the image that the user is viewing.
Amongst the problems with these approaches beyond the additional time it takes for the user to install whatever code is necessary to capture the screenshot is that many users have become increasingly wary of installing such applications or code onto their computers, fearful they may unintentionally download infected code that may be malware. As a result, rather than capturing the screenshot of the webpage, the user will often forego the process of capturing the screenshot altogether. This could be detrimental, for example, to a website host who may desire that a screenshot is captured of a webpage the user is viewing so that the host may have a better idea of what problems a user may be experiencing.